And the Winning Date Is
by Bec-Bec
Summary: One step closer, and yet so far away. More revelations about the messed up dates in the series. Again, any dates you have to offer will help immensely. Eventually we'll all solve this puzzle...eventually. Thanks for reading!
1. An Introduction

Disclaimer: Ownership, lawful claim, possession, control, deed, or any other synonym for "This is mine" would be wrongly applied to the characters/title of the Pretender. They belong to someone that's not me. Consider it like this, the characters and situation of the Pretender are paperdolls, I merely provide a new costume for them from time to time. I'm the friend next door who likes to come over and play with your stuff…sorry if that bothers you, I promise I'll help clean up afterward. In other words, no infringement is intended blahdy blahdy blah, my apologies to anyone who is offended.

Summary: This is a Preamble to the fiction "What's My Age Again," which is yet to be written. It merely deals in a complex theory of how old Parker and Jarod are, using various dates throughout the series. It's not actually a story, but if you've got the time, check it out.

**__**

Author's Note: The following may become intensely confusing as you continue to read it, so feel free to stop at any point in time. This is merely an introduction and is not necessary to read the story and fully understand it, when I finally finish writing the story.

Note: Any dates that you have to offer will help immensely! Correct me on anything I've miscalculated or misrepresented. 

And The Winning Date Is…

By Bec-Bec

****

An Introduction

The dates in the Pretender are highly important to the progression of the story. However, as you watch the series, you may begin to notice that several dates are contrary to one another. For example:

In the episode "Someone to Trust," Catherine Parker's gravestone reads Born: 1936 Died: 1979.

The 1936 date also appears in the episode "Toy Surprise." However, in "Toy Surprise," a DSA with the date 4-13-70 is shown as the day of her death.

Given the 1970 death date, Catherine was 34 when she died.

Given the 1979 death date, Catherine was 43 when she died.

In "Pretender 2001," Sydney tells Ms. Parker that her mother gained the Inner Sense when she was her age and died shortly after. Thusly, in 2001, Ms. Parker was either 34 or 43. Meaning, she was born in either 1967 of 1958, respectively.

Jarod was brought to the Centre in 1963. However, in "Pretender 2001," it is amended to say merely that he was brought in the 1960s. Assumably, in 1963, before he came to the Centre, he was starting kindergarten, as is proven in the episode "Stolen." This would make him either 4 or 5 years old. Given that fact, he was born in either 1959 or 1958.

If it's 1958, Parker and Jarod are the same age, something we already believed to be true. In this case, the 1979 date is Catherine Parker's correct death date. However, this puts in question the DSA date of the death. It also means that, when she died (1979), Jarod and Ms. Parker were both 21. Seeing as this is not true, it's still flawed.

All of which means…someone botched everything up big time.

If Catherine Parker had in fact died in 1970, then Ms. Parker was 34 in "Pretender 2001." This would make Jarod either 8 or 9 years older than her (Given that he was born in 1958 or 1959). In this case, he was either 11 or 12 when Catherine died. This is viable, except that, Ms. Parker would have only been 3 or 4 (Given that she was born in 1967).

So, did Catherine die in 1970 or 1979? And, was Catherine really the same age as Parker in "Pretender 2001?"

More questions arise in the episodes "To Serve and Protect" and "Exposed."

In "To Serve and Protect," the DSA date is given as 9-7-74. On this day, Jarod informs Sydney that he will never give up looking for his parents. In a phone call to Sydney, during this episode, he informs us that he was 11 during this DSA, meaning he would have been born in 1963. If he was isolated by the Centre in 1963, how could he have been born at the same time?

In "Exposed," we are told by Ben that he and Catherine knew each other for 15 years before she died. So, Catherine would have met Ben in either 1955, or 1964, depending on the 1970 and 1979 death dates, respectively. Given that Catherine was born in 1936, she was either 19 or 28 when she met Ben. 

If Ms. Parker's birth year is 1958 (From Catherine's 1979 death date) then three years passed from the time Catherine met Ben and the time Ms. Parker was born. 

If Ms. Parker's birth year is 1967 (From Catherine's 1970 death date) then, again, three years passed from the time Catherine met Ben and the time Ms. Parker was born.

Ben says that it was many years before his and Catherine's lips touched, any way you spin it, how is three years "many years"? In other words, is Ben really possibly her father?

"Exposed" also gives us other information. Catherine Parker went to Ben's for the first two weeks of every April. If Catherine Parker was "murdered" (faked suicide) on April 13th, 1970, (a Monday), calendar dates provide that she would have completed her usual two week stay with Ben. On the other hand, if it was April 13th, 1979, (a Friday), calendar dates show that she wouldn't have finished her stay with Ben yet.

The writers were incredibly inconsistent with their dates and I believe they realized this because, by the fourth season, they either didn't use DSA, but memories to show the past, or avoided placing a date on the DSA. Notice how in "The Inner Sense" the date Broots pulls up for the DSA is not displayed in the bottom left hand corner but on a completely different display. June 18th is the date displayed, two months and 5 days after Catherine's supposed death. During these two months, where has Catherine been? I propose that she was with Ben…i.e. he knows more than he's telling.

"Exposed" offers another interesting tidbit regarding the fact that Jarod's age in 1967 DSAs looks to be the same in 1974 DSAs, one would expect a seven years' difference. Casting wise, I understand that they'd want to stick with only one actor, but they could have changed the DSA dates to fit that. The time frames are remarkably inconsistent.

Further revelations come from the episodes "A Virus Among Us" and "Ranger Jarod." In "A Virus Among Us," it is confirmed, by Raines, that Jarod was four when he came to the Centre. Thusly, Jarod was born in 1959 (Four years previous to 1963 when he came to the Centre.) "Ranger Jarod" shows that the first day that Ms. Parker and Jarod met was October 7th, 1969. This 1969 date fits with Catherine's death in 1970.

So, what's right, and what's wrong?

Anyway, if you're still with me here, look for the story soon…I hope the muses decide to talk with me and help me along. I wanted to have the story ready today because it's January 3rd and that's Ms. Parker's birthday, but when I can't write, I can't write. GRRR. I hate writer's block. Thanks for wasting your time on my pathetic observances about the Pretender. Please send me any dates you feel are relevant! I'd appreciate it immensely.


	2. Dates, Dates, Who's Got the Correct Date...

Disclaimer: Ownership, lawful claim, possession, control, deed, or any other synonym for "This is mine" would be wrongly applied to the characters/title of the Pretender. They belong to someone that's not me. Consider it like this, the characters and situation of the Pretender are paperdolls, I merely provide a new costume for them from time to time. I'm the friend next door who likes to come over and play with your stuff…sorry if that bothers you, I promise I'll help clean up afterward. In other words, no infringement is intended blahdy blahdy blah, my apologies to anyone who is offended.

Summary: This is a Preamble to the fiction "What's My Age Again," which is yet to be written. It merely deals in a complex theory of how old Parker and Jarod are, using various dates throughout the series. It's not actually a story, but if you've got the time, check it out.

**__**

Author's Note: The following may become intensely confusing as you continue to read it, so feel free to stop at any point in time. This is merely an introduction and is not necessary to read the story and fully understand it, when I finally finish writing the story.

Note: Any dates that you have to offer will help immensely! Correct me on anything I've miscalculated or misrepresented. 

And The Winning Date Is…

By Bec-Bec

****

Dates, Dates, Who's Got the Correct Dates?

Ginger has just called to my attention the fact that Lyle's high school reunion was in 1983 (As proven in the episode "Crash.") if this is true, assuming Lyle was either 17 or 18 when he graduated, he would have been born in either 1966 or 1965, respectively.

If Ms. Parker really was born in 1959, how could her twin have been born 6 or 7 years later? Was he held back in school? Or was Ms. Parker in fact born in 1966 or 65?

The more you think about it, the more confusing and convoluted it becomes.

Were the different seasons working from different time frames?

Staceysedge also made me wonder something. What if, as she told me, Catherine Parker did not go to Raines' cabin in 1970, but in 1971? It's entirely possible that it wasn't until 1971, except that, one would think the reason that she'd faked her suicide was because she knew she was going to have the baby and she wanted to keep the baby from falling into the hands of the Centre. That was the explanation I though of when I saw it. She knew she would be killed after she gave birth to Ethan, so she "killed" herself before they could, only to later actually be killed by Raines. She figured that at least Ethan would be free, but Raines got his claws in anyway. But then, I don't think she ever said she left to keep Ethan from falling into the Centre's hands. However, again, another thing I've thought of, if she successfully vanished for an entire year, why would she go to Raines? Was she with Raines for a year?

Phenyx, I'm confused by what you said. I never commented that Jarod and Ms. Parker met right when he came to the Centre…where'd you get that from? Sorry if I confused you, I merely commented that given that they met in 1969 and Catherine died in 1970, the 1970 date made more sense because they were about the same age when they met as they were when she died. It just made more sense than Catherine dying in 1979 in this case. And, yes, Jarod could have started school earlier than most…perhaps he started with first grade and not kindergarten…hmm I hadn't thought of it before. It just worked for me because I was four when I started kindergarten. 

Speaking of Jarod's schooling, something always confused me about that. His mother told him (shown in "Stolen") that he was going to a special school…did the Centre tell her that? Did she find out that they were lying and refuse to let them take him so they stole him? It's viable.

Pez 7701, you made me think of this one: Which episode tells us that Jarod was thirty when he escaped? I'm just wondering… was it the first one? I don't have it on tape so I can't check. 

I think my VCR is getting tired from doing all of this work, but I love my tape collection…Sigh, the Pretender any hour, every hour. Particularly IOTH, which I even copied to another tape to keep from wearing it out…I think I've reached the area of certifiably crazy. Oh well!

Special note to Calypso, of course this is harder than quantum physics! I learned that years ago and yet I'm still confused by the Pretender…that should say something. You know, I once explained the theory of relativity to a teacher using a Braeburn apple, and she understood it…I'm very proud of that…now if only I could explain the Pretender…

I recently came across another date that doesn't fit. Father Thio's letter in "IOTH" has the date of 13-10-08. Since he's in Europe, the day is shown before the month, thusly, he wrote the letter on October 13th 1908. Now, if he wrote the letter the day he died, and he died the day that the cryptkeeper's family died, how does this work? Supposedly the cryptkeeper arrived in America 100 years later, that would mean 2008… What's wrong with that? I think that's one of the biggest discrepancies I've found.

I decided, to make everything a bit less complicated, that I should construct a timeline. Italicized dates have been calculated given information from certain episodes.

__

1901- The Centre was founded. (100 years prior to "IOTH")

1936- Catherine Parker was born. ( Tombstone date in "Toy Surprise" & "Someone to Trust")

__

1955- Ben meets Catherine (15 years prior to her death in 1970. 15 years is courtesy of "Exposed")

1958, January 3rd- _Ms. Parker was born (Given Catherine's death in 1979 & that she's the same age when she recieves the Inner Sense in 2001.)_

1963, February 4th- Jarod comes to the Centre ("Pilot" & first season opener says 1963)

__

1964- Ben meets Catherine (15 years prior to her death in 1979. 15 years is courtesy of "Exposed")

1965, January 3rd- Lyle is born (If he was 18 when he graduated high school in 1983. 1983 date is courtesy of "Crash")

1966, January 3rd- Lyle is born (If he was 17 when he graduated high school in 1983. 1983 date is courtesy of "Crash")

1967, January 3rd- _Ms. Parker was born (Given Catherine's death in 1970 & that she's the same age when she recieves the Inner Sense in 2001.)_

1969, October 7th- Jarod and Ms. Parker first meet ("Ranger Jarod")

1970, April 13th - Catherine Parker fakes her suicide (DSA from "Toy Surprise")

__

1970, June 18th- Catherine Parker enlists the help of Raines to give birth to Ethan ("Inner Sense")

__

1970, October/November/ December- Ethan is born (9 months after Catherine's "death," 8 months after, or 7 months after, depending on how far along in the pregnancy she was.)

1979- Catherine Parker death date (Tombstone "Someone to Trust)

1983- Lyle graduates from High School (Yearbook in "Crash")

2001- Ms. Parker is the same age as Catherine (Ms. Parker recieves the Inner Sense in "Pretender 2001" and is told by Sydney that Catherine was the same age when she received the gift.)

I'd love to add anything you've got for me! You should notice that I've italicized January 3rd in Lyle's case because this new information makes me believe it's possible that Lyle is in fact not Ms. Parker's twin… Does anyone know how old Angelo is? The episode "FX" gives the DSA date of 4-13-70 as the day he was turned into Angelo from Timmy, but he seems younger than Parker and Jarod at that point in time. Hmmm. The dates are so inaccurate!

On a completely non date-related question, in "The Inner Sense," as Raines is burning his things from the cabin, notice that he had his oxygen tank off. Was this to keep it from exploding when he lit a match, or what? It was highly confusing.

Also, did you notice that there's an entire line of text on Father Thio's letter that is never read? I paused it over and over to read what it said, but I can only make out part of it:

I fear putting such dow-

-ish to unburden my soul of this know-

-as soon as possible.

Later, when they show the letter again to see the part where it says "she holds the key to finding them still, you can fill in the ends of the sentences, though the first one makes no sense:

I fear putting such down on paper

-ish to unburden my soul of this knowledge to you

-as soon as possible.

Another thing with Catherine's gravestone: Did you notice how it's not in the same place in any of the epsiodes? In "Toy Surprise" there are gates surrounding the area, with trees beyond the gates, but the area around the grave is open. However, in "Someone to Trust" the graveside is surrounded by trees… What happened there? In "Corn Man" the grave's back in an open space…but the gates are still gone. If the producers couldn't shoot in the same location, they should have at least tried to make it look like it was the same location. Tsk tsk, the inconsistency of it all.

Just some observations… Anyway, thanks for reading this crazy ramble, if in fact you did actually read it. I didn't expect to have so many people read it because it's not a story. But hey, thanks for letting me ramble to you. Anything you have to add will be helpful in solving this little mystery. Send me comments if you've got them! Love Ya All! Buh Bye!


	3. In 1963, Who Knows What Happened?

Disclaimer: Ownership, lawful claim, possession, control, deed, or any other synonym for "This is mine" would be wrongly applied to the characters/title of the Pretender. They belong to someone that's not me. Consider it like this, the characters and situation of the Pretender are paperdolls, I merely provide a new costume for them from time to time. I'm the friend next door who likes to come over and play with your stuff…sorry if that bothers you, I promise I'll help clean up afterward. In other words, no infringement is intended blahdy blahdy blah, my apologies to anyone who is offended.

Summary: This is a Preamble to the fiction "What's My Age Again," which is yet to be written. It merely deals in a complex theory of how old Parker and Jarod are, using various dates throughout the series. It's not actually a story, but if you've got the time, check it out.

**__**

Author's Note: The following may become intensely confusing as you continue to read it, so feel free to stop at any point in time. This is merely an introduction and is not necessary to read the story and fully understand it, when I finally finish writing the story.

Note: Any dates that you have to offer will help immensely! Correct me on anything I've miscalculated or misrepresented. 

And The Winning Date Is…

By Bec-Bec

****

In 1963…Who Knows What Happened?

Okay, upon watching the episode "Bloodlines" again, I noticed several things. One is that Jarod's file does say 12-072463-01 (Thanks Happy 1!). In theory, it could mean that Jarod's birthday was July 24th,1963. However, again, it doesn't fit with Jarod's being brought to the Centre February 4th, 1963; he wouldn't have been born yet. Just to make sure, I watched closely to see if we saw the number codes on any of the other red files…we didn't. If we had seen the number of the mysterious eighth file maybe we could have proven this (it would have said something like 12-010363-01 for Parker's birthday.) The only numbers we can come close to seeing on any of the red files belong to the new three children being considered for Prodigy. However, we can't read them because of the camera angle. Too bad because it was an awesome idea. (Happy 1, you're a genius because I never would have even noticed…be careful, they might try to kidnap you for the Pretender project…)

I also thought about Jarod's being isolated in 1963 (courtesy of the idea from Kilby and Happy 1) meaning that he wasn't necessarily born before 1963. Yet, again, I was faced with that pesky date of February 4th, 1963 as the day Jarod came to the Centre. Also, in "Bloodlines" Jarod remembered that they took his blood to test it. They were obviously testing to see if he had the Pretender gene. If they had known before he was born, or right when he was born (possibly 1963) why would they not test him for the abilities until he was four?

Lyle's graduation date opened up a whole new can of worms. Yes, Happy 1, Parker being younger than Jarod and born in 1965 would fit better with Lyle's graduation date…but it would also mean that when Jarod and Parker kissed, they were between the ages of 6 and 4…yuck. RRP, Ginger, and Pyroangel3228 brought this up. Besides the fact that the idea is nasty, they look far older than that in the DSA. There is one date that they didn't screw up though: in "Crash" it says it's Lyle's 15 year reunion, which, given the 1998 airdate of the episode, actually fit with 15 years. Who knew they had any idea of consistency? Though, it all leads me back to wondering if Lyle is in fact Parker's twin, and if he isn't is Angelo her twin? I think that Angelo is younger than Parker as well…so, there's a possibility that another person entirely is her brother. With the Centre, anyone can be family. Maybe, it's Eddie…or Alex… who knows? 

There are eight red files. If Jarod, Parker, Lyle, Angelo, Eddie, Alex, and Kyle make up seven of them, who's the eighth? I think there's an unidentified player to this game…anyone wanna take that on for a fan fiction?

I checked "Dragon House" again, thanks to a suggestion from Kat Tru about Emily's exact age. Harriet Tashman tells Jarod that his parents went to stay with her in 1969 and had Emily a month later, this would mean Emily's about 33/34 now. I'll assume she's 33 because Catherine sent Margaret and Charles to Harriet before she died, in April, and the month of April hasn't come yet. Emily should be about ten years or so younger than Jarod.

Ethan's age can only be determined from Catherine's time of death. After the evidence I've seen, I'm gonna side with Catherine's having died in 1970. After all, that's what we see in "Toy Surprise" (DSA), "Red Rock Jarod" (Centre ID [thanks to Ginger and RRP for that one] ), and "Hope and Prey" (Lockbox holding the weapon that killed her). This means the date of 1979 on her headstone in "Someone to Trust" is wrong. I think the 4-13-70 date appears elsewhere as well, but not on anything I've got on tape (Ginger mentioned that it shows up in "Every Picture Tells a Story," something which is not currently in my collection.) Let's just assume that somewhere between 6 and 9 months later, Catherine was shot by Raines after giving birth to Ethan. So, Ethan is about 32, and will turn 33 around October/November/December.

By now, I'm also inclined to believe that Sydney's statement about Parker and Catherine's being the same age when they inherited the inner sense is false. If Catherine died in 1970, she was 34 at the time. If Parker was 34 in 2001, she was born in 1967. 1967 just doesn't work for obvious age reasons regarding kisses in 1969… I'm not saying this disproves the fact that Lyle could have been born in 1967, I'm just saying that Parker wasn't.

I've also got new dates here. Such as, Faith's age and the date on Fennigor's "death" certificate.

In "At the Hour of Our Death" we get to see Faith's gravestone. She was born January 13, 1962 and died May 12th or 13th year not given, I can't quite read the stone. Regardless of that fact, given her birth date and that Jarod and Parker met her just a few months after her mother's death, Faith was about 8 when she died. This once again disproves Catherine's death in 1979 because Faith would have been 17 in 1979, it also proves that Parker wasn't born in 1965-1967 because otherwise Faith would have been older than her, which she wasn't.

Now, the date on Fennigor's "death" certificate is June 13th 1980. I can't read the print above that, but if that's his date of death, something else is wrong. It can't be his birth date for obvious reasons, but what exactly is the date for then? Just another mystery to add to the heap I've created.

Oh, I forgot to mention that in "Keys," Ms. Parker recieves the medical report about her mother's beating with the date November 27th, 1969 on it. When she confronts her father later in the episode, she says that a few months later, Catherine was dead. Which (drum roll please) means that Catherine died in 1970.

I would like to apologize for anyone's head that I've caused to explode form all of this, my own brain is currently strained at this mystery. Once again, thanks for reading, I highly appreciate having people to discuss this with. If you find anymore date inconsistencies, send them right along, none of this ends until we've solved it all! In other words, it's never going to end…unless they decide to humor us with a third movie…though, at this point in time, I'm starting to think that they wrote themselves into a corner that they can't crawl out of. With all of the storylines that they never finished off, we'd need a 10 hour miniseries to clear it all up…not that I'd complain if they made a 10 hour miniseries, it's just unlikely that they would even with all of the Pretender's fans. Sigh. Anyway, I love you all for reading this and responding. I'll write more chapters if you find more problems, so keep your eyes glued to your television set to find something we've all missed that explains everything that makes no sense. Good luck! Buh Bye!

PS. I'm no closer to writing my story "What's My Age Again"…someone wake up my muses, they're sleeping on the job.


End file.
